August 21, 2010

Due an update I guess. I have been struggling all week with a painting based on a sketch done in Tenby. It is larger than I usually paint and after a week and many changes is still not right. But at a certain point you have to back away and leave it to return to with a fresh eye. It is a time of day I always find difficult, full sunlight with a beautiful clear sky is I find the hardest of times to portray. Give me a nasty wet and stormy day and I am far happier!

To clear my head I went out to sketch and paint up in the City of London. I have been meaning to paint a morning in the city subject for some time, so this was by way of an information gathering exercise. When I got to Cannon Street I was in luck the light was streaming down the road and transfiguring the scene. I snapped as many photos as I dared being in fear of being arrested as a terrorist… man with bulky green rucksack taking photos of commuters! I did a few very quick sketches of the road, traffic and some of the people before the light went over. I passed a pleasant hour by the Tower sketching the tourists and invigorated by this I went on down to the river which was looking beautiful, all dramatic clouds and sparkling water. I had to wait a little while for the light to move round but at about four it was perfect and the painting didn’t take longer than 20 min.

In a fit of enthusiasm I hiked back along the south bank of the Thames stopping to sketch on the Deptford Strand. It was as they say a “Grand Day Out”. But first Tenby.

Here’s the sketch of the scene only about 15 min, I tried to catch the feeling of the scene without too much detail. I had just sat and painted the boats from the other side so I didn’t feel like sitting again to paint.

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Here is the studio painting which after much changing around is still not what I want. I will leave it for a while to consider. then I will either scrub it out or make some dramatic (and risky) changes. Before doing this I will take this image into Photoshop to explore the options, this is one area where I find the computer very useful as I can explore various possibilities.

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Here it is after being mistreated in the computer. Better I feel, but more still to do!

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Here’s where I’m leaving it the foreground is still unresolved alas. I’m tempted to add some figures as a focus in the mid ground as the whole picture looks rather like an attractive but empty stage set waiting for the star of the show to arrive! It is always very hard to judge whether a picture that doesn’t work to your satisfaction is actually irredeemably flawed, or if some addition, exclusion or other alteration will take it over the divide from poor to good. It can sometimes just be that the actual picture just doesn’t fit your initial ambitions. Like a cuckoo in the nest it has fledged into a bird of a different feather than you hoped. I will leave it for now so that time can set me at a distance from it allowing more sensible judgement than I can muster at the present. Hopefully it will return in a later post reborn!

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Here’s the scene outside Cannon St station. I wished I had some darker toned paper but on the upside the bus had conveniently broken down! It is hard catching people in quick sketches the best way I have found is to try and get an interesting silhouette and just suggest the rest. The Street was dry alas but I pretended it wasn’t.

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I walked down to the Tower but didn’t fancy drawing castles so I sat and sketched the tourists. I don’t do this often enough, but the little sketches of figures are very useful to add to paintings. When people are on the move the drawings have to be more imagination than observation but it’s surprising how often they catch a certain something that imagination alone wouldn’t give.

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I’ve tried to get these ones actual size, they literally only take a minute each.

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After a bit more wandering I got to the river and the wobbly bridge. The light was just fantastic, sometimes the scene looks so dramatic that you just know that the sketch will be good. It is just nerve racking trying to catch it all before the light changes too much. I have to force myself to be systematic and not panic. I took several photos but when I looked at them they just didn’t catch the mood which shows how important plein air sketches are.

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On my trek back I stopped to sketch on the foreshore at Deptford Strand, most of which alas is uglified by horrible flats built too close to the river. Architects, planning authorities, and developers should all be lined up and shot (metaphorically of course!).